Fish Funk
by callmeakumatized
Summary: Her life is full of messy secrets that probably aren't so secret after all. His whole existence - and the lives of those around him - has been spent in ignorance. OR - Adrien learns how to smirk and "Ladybug" falls off the deep end, and Marinette wears a dress and "Chat Noir" finds himself in hot water. (Fun, romance, awkward situations!) (MerMay prompts with a May-riChat flair!)
1. Warm

Mermay Day One - Prompt: **Warm**

* * *

Marinette's boots felt heavier than normal, her feet seeming to drag under her as if feeding off the reluctance set in her bones. They had done good work here, her and her crew. But instead of the usual want to return home pressing on her heart, Marinette instead felt all the dread she had suppressed their entire journey crashing down on her in one mighty wave.

For, though it warmed her heart just thinking of returning home to see the loving faces of her parents, Marinette would pass a certain benchmark while on her crossing of the sea: her 18th birthday.

When she returned home this time, there would be no more seafaring.

Marinette would be expected to marry.

A wet pressure suddenly touched her hand, pulling Marinette's attention downward. As if sensing her sudden cold feet (ha…a little early for _that_ , isn't it?), Tikki, in all her red, long-haired glory, had nosed her hand. Marinette bent down and started rubbing her fingers vigorously through Tikki's tresses that seemed to be constantly damp, the action causing a burning in her heart that eased her pain in an almost physical way. Tikki pushed into Marinette further, causing the girl to fall over in unbridled laughter. It only spurned Tikki to keep at it, however, and the canine companion was soon lying on top of the young girl, licking heartily at her face.

Tikki always seemed to have a way of transforming Marinette into something brighter.

qpqpqpqpqp

The cold of the sea rushed around Adrien, the icy feeling tingling his skin in a way that was no longer foreign to him. For nearly his entire life, he had been unfamiliar to sensations like hot and cold, wet and dry, light and dark. In fact, his people lived the entirety of their lives in this same ignorance, never venturing far enough to really feel a difference, never even realizing that there could be something else out there they were missing out on.

But Adrien knew. And because of it, every day he craved more.

Adrien's dark tail flicked behind him, propelling him through the water faster as his mind wandered back to his first time feeling something… _different_.

 _Warmth._

It was a subtle current, one he barely felt on the tip of the fin on one of his arms. The class he had been following went on without him, his fellow students never realizing he was gone as they listened to their instructor drone on about things like squid and their tentacular appendages. Drawing a hand through the moving water, Adrien was frozen in pure wonder. He could feel whatever it was stir around his fingers like a piece of seaweed or anemone, swirling and moving with the sea as though it was an entity of its own. The path it cut through the water was easy enough to follow; though the curiosity to do so caused Adrien to almost shake with want, still he hesitated. Its path moved without thought to any direction, except it being away from Adrien's home, away from Atlantis, and, most importantly, away from his father's protective eyes. If he followed the current, it would be going against all of his father's wishes.

Which, admittedly, to a 13-year-old, wasn't an unattractive idea.

A sudden, more forceful stirring in the ocean caused Adrien to dart backward in the water. A mass, unafraid of its surroundings - though, as Adrien watched, was undoubtedly out of place in this part of the ocean - moved leisurely passed Adrien. A flick of its whiskered face, something resembling a lopsided smile, made the black fish look as if he was laughing at Adrien's predicament, though having no previous knowledge of the merman's inner musings. As it passed, Adrien realized it was lazily floating through the route he himself had been debating on. Once more, as the giant catfish turned back and look at Adrien through his beady eyes, that tilted grin appeared on his elongated mouth before turning on his way again.

Something of a smile appeared on Adrien's face then, but not one that he was used to. It seemed to mimic the mocking catfish; instead of the feeling of his eyes crinkling in the corners, or his cheeks raising up in just the right way - like Father liked it - Adrien felt just one side of his cheek edge upward, his lip curling to meet it, and eyes glancing to the side in a way that could possibly be considered sneaky, watching his class swim farther and farther away.

(Through the years, Adrien, though not having a true name for this particular facial feat (though in his mind, always calling it "catfish-like"), would become ever familiar with it, especially when he was thinking about doing something particularly naughty.)

There was no more deliberation.

Adrien swam into the unknown.

qpqpqpqpqp

It would be years later when Plagg, the black catfish who was as huge as he was misplaced in the open ocean, would take Adrien closer to his original home than ever before. Here, the water held more ' _warmth_ ', as Adrien learned to call the once-mysterious sensation. It also was shallower, _lighter_. Though Adrien had never beheld the source of the brightness yet, per Plagg's guidance, Adrien reveled in the way his eyes could soak in _more_ of the world around him all at once.

It only made him feel more loathed to return home.

Adrien sighed before startling in the sight now before him. Great masses that seemed like ghosts of things once alive started to appear all around. They looked like underwater buildings, but constructed with a strange element. Instead of jagged rock, or movement from coral or anemones, the structures laid completely still. It didn't feel…natural. And though the picture they painted all together was breathtaking and eerily beautiful in its way, the place held a heavy feeling of death and destruction.

"What are they?" Adrien asked his companion.

"Ships," Plagg answered simply, as was his way. He seemed to be as knowledgeable as he was unhelpful, usually talking in detail about "food" that was dropped into the ocean (loving especially certain round things that smelled bad enough no other sea creatures would touch them, sometimes even filled with holes) while offering only one- or two-word answers to things Adrien was actually interested in.

"Ships?" Adrien pressed, swimming closer to one of the large things before looking back to Plagg expectantly.

"They built them."

"Who?" Who could create something like this? And why would they break it and leave it abandoned? As was part of the ocean, it was, as Adrien could clearly see, being repurposed from its original design. All manner of creatures lurked in and around the 'ships', as Plagg had called them, though all lurked in relative silence and stillness. It was if they, as Adrien did, felt the despair that tainted the water here.

As Adrien mused, he came to the sudden realization that his companion had stopped, and was now looking at him with that crooked grin that Adrien had come to associate with only him.

"You'll see."

* * *

[[ Thanks for reading! The next 2 ch. should be uploaded by tonight!

Seeing as how, you know, MerMay actually started on the FIRST of May...and...well...yeah. ;D ]]

[[ This will be a continuous story (drabble-esque chapters) built from the 2018 Mermay prompt list written by aliensfordomts on Tumblr!

(...Who I am having a hard time actually finding there? If y'all know who this is, let me know, and I'll edit this!) ]]

[[ Pffft. DUH IT'S GONNA BE BASED OFF LITTLE MERMAID.

Heh...kinda. 8) ]]

[[ My tumblr: callmeakumatized ]]


	2. Petty Crime

Mermay Day Two - Prompt: **Petty Crime**

* * *

A mass moved overhead, temporarily covering the light peeking through the holes in the ceiling. Expecting some type of big fish or whale of some sort - and hoping it wasn't something more menacing - Adrien tore his eyes away from his latest ship find - a soft, pink _something_ \- and looked up. His eyes did a double-take before widening.

It wasn't a fish, or any type of underwater life. The details of the whatever-it-was was swallowed in shadow, but the way it cut through the water instead of gliding with the flow of it, leaving a massive trail in its wake, gave it a decidedly inorganic feeling. Plagg joined his side, glancing in the direction Adrien was silently staring. His whiskers twitched.

"Is that…?" Adrien asked his companion, words so quiet in pent-up excitement they were nearly lost to the current. His grip tightened around his coral-colored find, his tail propelling him upward to peer at the dark shape through the hole.

"A ship?" Plagg responded. Adrien nodded. "Yeah, that's a ship."

A ship _._ A real _ship!_

A million questions raced around Adrien's brain. Looking to Plagg, the start of his sure-to-be-lengthy interrogation on the tip of his tongue, Adrien faltered. For one thing, Plagg's answers were sure to be short and unhelpful. The way Plagg moved now, twitched his body and whiskers and gazing at the fleeing ship only backed his theory. Whether the overgrown fish would simply be unresponsive - or in mild distress - if asked any questions about it, Adrien didn't know. But there wasn't time to debate about asking or not. Before the dark bulk could leave his vision, Adrien darted after it.

Until a hard slap on his tail caused him to flip around.

Plagg looked serious for the first time since Adrien had known him. His wide lips were tight, his body seeming to curl up on himself and back again in clear agitation. The stance caused Adrien to float back down to his friend, though he continued to glance back wistfully toward the ship's direction.

"They're humans."

Adrien turned to look Plagg straight on.

"What?"

"Humans. They look like merpeople, but they don't have tails. They have no fins of any sort, nor scales." He wiggled his own flippers briefly to accentuate the point.

The description left much to be desired, the mental picture it painted enough to cause an uneasy sick feeling in the merboy's stomach.

 _How could someone with half a body even survive!?_

"B-But how - ?" Adrien wondered aloud, twirling his forgotten find around in his hands. "H-How do they swim?"

Plagg's whiskers twitched again, though Adrien couldn't quite read his expression (slightly understandable, since it _was_ just a wide blubbery mass).

"They don't," Plagg spoke flatly.

"Don't - ?"

"They don't swim, 'kid. There's no water up there to swim _in_." Plagg swam in a circle out of the hold, gesticulating with his tail as he came back to Adrien, belly facing the light.

It was a concept that, as a merperson, Adrien was, quite literally, unable to understand.

Plagg "laughed", a short sputtering snort he seemed to reserve for when Adrien looked or did or _said_ something particularly stupid. The merboy was about to reprimand him, but Plagg, with a flash of his eyes, spun around Adrien and took off suddenly, moving faster than Adrien would have believed possible. With only a moment of surprised hesitation, Adrien, with his "treasure" still gripped in his hand, darted after Plagg.

(Where had this speed been when they were chased by a _shark_ just a few days ago!?)

Plagg dove into the collection of jagged rocks that lay next to the open space where the ships were. There was a brasher rushing in the ocean here than Adrien had ever heard before. The countless currents pushed and pulled, tugging at everything that passed through. It was difficult to muscle through, a task made harder by the flighty light of the sun. At times the sun shone brighter, and in other parts, its light was doused completely. At those times, Adrien struggled to get his eyes to adjust fast enough to see where Plagg had gone. It was an irony he didn't find funny at all; having lived in darkness his entire life, Adrien's eyes still struggled to readjust to it after being somewhere lighter.

After a long while, Plagg finally slowed, almost to a stop, and Adrien swam passed him with a yelp before spinning in the water and backtracking. He wanted to say something, wanted to reprimand Plagg for doing this, but his gills at the side of his neck were sucking in water too strongly to eke out any sound. Plagg, who, despite being constantly lazy, hadn't any trouble from the ferocious swim, spoke instead.

"Adrien," Plagg started, voice low and tight. "This is the most important thing to remember: humans can be _dangerous_." Plagg had been noticeably more agitated this trip than on any other. The subject, and perhaps where they were (wherever this _was_ ) seemed to exacerbate the black creature's emotions. His forked tail whipped so hard and fast after his admission to Adrien, it made a loud _snap!_ in the water. Adrien startled at the sound.

"They _eat fish_."

The disturbing depiction Adrien had painted in his mind from earlier now had a few added rows of shark teeth.

Adrien had no doubt he would have nightmares the next time he slept.

"Plagg…" So many questions, so many things he wanted to know, and Adrien didn't seem to be able to articulate anything. One question, though, had continuously nagged at the back of his mind since their first meeting, and seemed to be the only thing he could ask now.

"Plagg, why are you sharing all this with me?"

All at once, Plagg paused in his movements. He obviously hadn't been expecting this question, but the catfish's lip turned up in the corner a bit. It was almost his signature smile, but the sadness there, the hardness in his blank eyes, made Adrien wonder, not for the first time, not only how _old_ Plagg was, but all the experiences that he had been privy to.

"Because your people have lived in darkness for too long, merprince."

 _Merprince._

That wasn't actually a word, but Adrien didn't say anything. Plagg had to know that, using it to show Adrien that he, at some point or another, had found out who he really was…or perhaps that he had known all along. Adrien let this realization, and Plagg's confession, sink in, along with its obvious implications.

Like that the merpeople were, or would be, Adrien's responsibility.

And that the prince was meant to bring the light back to them all.

It was something that Adrien had mused over through the years. The plans to do so ranged from daring to secretive, from bringing Plagg in to meet his father, or bringing pieces of the ships to show the merpeople. Every plan, no matter how dumb it sounded, or how well-thought out it was, all ended when Adrien would come face-to-face with his father.

Gabriel was made king _years_ before Adrien was born. No one really knew _how_ old he was. After his victory over the great oppressor, Hawkmoth, Gabriel was granted a trident from Neptune himself, or so the stories went. Among other magical powers, the object seemed to also grant immortality. The new king, upon reviewing their world to be corrupt and dangerous, moved the entire civilization from their previous home of _Atlantis_ \- a legend in its own right - to _Ferro Papilio_ , a place buried deep in the mountain regions of the open ocean. It was where they had lived ever since.

It was here, though years later, he had met Adrien's mother, the first woman in his long reign he had ever fallen for.

Adrien was born soon after their marriage, and, according to his private tutor, the kingdom had rejoiced to have a prince. Though he acknowledged his role as a father, Gabriel never seemed to take a real liking to Adrien. Nothing spoke from him of admiration or acceptance, but where Gabriel failed, Emilie, his mother, picked up the slack. From _her_ he learned the value of a soul, of making others happy, or helping others _feel_ loved. Though Adrien was often kept at home for weeks at a time, his mother was there with him, and he really couldn't find a fault in his little world because of it.

Mere weeks before Adrien's 13th birthday, however, his mother _died_ , the love and comfort in Adrien's world perishing along with her.

There were no real threats to them in _Ferro Papilio_ , Gabriel always drawled on. But their protected city didn't stop Adrien from feeling incredibly vulnerable that day. He had wanted to escape, wanted to see something rather than _everything here_ that reminded him of his mother. But Adrien was never let out of the house after that, and never knew why. When trying to talk to his father about it, the merman would never want to see him. The only companion he was left with was a small crab named Nathalie, who, he learned quickly, was more into spilling his secrets to Gabriel than being a confidant. In was in this stretch of time when Adrien had finally seen his home for what it was. Although living in _Ferro Papilio_ kept them safe, it also left the merpeople in endless darkness, figuratively and literally, and they had no idea.

There was one time Adrien had, after a particularly heart-wrenching day feeling the ghost of his mother's love and fearing he would never feel happiness again, went directly to his father to touch on the subject of what was out there. Adrien was looking for hope. But while the suffering merboy had only asked, in his love-starved state, what was beyond the borders Gabriel had raged at Adrien with a maniacal ferocity that made him retch for days. Unable to stand the mention of Adrien any more, Gabriel had sent him out to join the school. It was the first day that Adrien had been out of the house in weeks, and was, perhaps not so coincidentally, when he felt the warmth, when he met Plagg.

It was, perhaps, why he had so willingly followed.

How would he ever succeed the task now laid before him?

Adrien wasn't sure. But he would never give up trying.

The feel of something hard within the smooth texture of his stolen treasure from the ship suddenly caught Adrien's attention. Turning the billowing bulk through the water in front of him, Adrien let it flutter out fully to really look at it while feeling for the hard part that had passed his fingers a moment before. It moved softly in the current, mimicking a jelly-fish in some ways. While their colors were certainly similar, the feel of it resembled a dolphin's sleek body, smooth to the touch. He could see the small bulge now. Something was hidden in a pocket - like a seahorse's - on the side of his treasure. With tentative fingers, Adrien pulled it out, wondering what it was.

It was smooth and round, made out of a shiny substance that Adrien thought he had seen before, though covered with flecked of black and red. The color of this was unmarred, though a subtle pattern seemed etched into its surface: a wonky circle with four smaller circles on the top or bottom, depending on which way he looked at it.

Plagg's voice at his shoulder made Adrien suddenly jump.

"It's a ring. Put it on your finger."

At the same moment Adrien slipped the ring on, another mass passed over their heads. This time, when Adrien started upward, Plagg nodded his encouragement.

Neither saw the eels that had followed them. Nor the bright purple that glowed from their eyes.

* * *

[[ Pffft. Post everyday. Why did I think I could do that?

Well, I will! I swear! Starting today.

Get ready for all the chapters...'cause I'm catching up today. 8) ]]


	3. Silky

[[ FYI: UNLIKE in the 'Little Mermaid', this actually takes place in Spain. (Not the Netherlands. Dagnabbit.) Enjoy! c: ]]

* * *

Mermay Day Three - Prompt: **Silky**

* * *

Marinette reached up and softly touched the little orbs she kept in as earrings at all times. Her good luck charms.

"No," she finally responded to the waiting nursery maid. "No, I'd like to keep them in, if you don't mind."

The older woman huffed a little, but smiled resignedly.

"'Tis not _my_ place to say what a princess should or should not wear to her coming-out party, Your Highness." Gathering up her things, Sra. Abaroa turned to leave, muttering something under her breath that Marinette knew was something about how she _did_ know the proper way to dress for parties. The little princess resisted the urge to laugh out loud, and had to snap the smile off her face when Abaroa turned around again.

"Oh, Your Majesty," she started, then sighed, then rolled her eyes, then sighed again. "Your new lady's maid will be here any moment to take you down to dinner." Marinette nodded, but Abaroa looked like she wasn't done. Several times she opened her mouth, changed her mind, and turned to go. With another huff and shrug, Abaora turned to face Marinette full on. "Forgive me for saying this, Princess, but it needs to be said." Another deep breath. "Please - _please_ \- be kind to the poor girl."

Abaora really did leave this time, but not before an obvious silent prayer.

Marinette honestly had no idea what the woman was talking about. Kind to her new lady's maid? Of course she would be kind to her! Marinette was everything in this world _except_ for _un_ kind! Why, she had _never_ done anything to Abaora that would cause her _former_ nursery maid to -

Marinette stopped swirling in her dress to stare accusingly back at herself in the mirror. Mirror Marinette suddenly looked appropriately abashed, as scenes upon scenes of a Marinette right here in front of her mirror _kindly_ harangued her attending nursery maid. One right after the other.

Abaora was number fifteen. Number fifteen in her now thirteen years of life.

Puffing up her cheeks, Marinette blew out a labored breath of air. So she was a bit…high maintenance when getting ready for…well, getting ready for _anything_. It wasn't _her_ fault princesses were "required" to wear stiff, uncomfortable _dresses_ everywhere instead of clothes that were actually comfortable! So she might have thrown a few fits. Every other moment of the day, she did everything she needed to do and more without complaint. When she was ten, she had even tried making her own clothes so no one would have to worry about such-and-such dress from so-and-so and how she needed to wear because of reasons. She would wear her own dresses. Then, not only would the people in the kingdom see her as some sort of "beauty" with no brain, they would see her as a girl with real _personality_.

Her parents, loving and supportive as they were, were also quite conscious of the image a young princess in handmade clothes would present to not only their own kingdom, but to kingdoms around her, and had affectionately shut her down.

But Marinette, as had been told of her for ages, was a fighter. And when her reputation alone didn't work to scare her nursery maids into letting out the sides of her dress enough so she could breathe comfortably, Marinette _would_ fight. Some nursery maids had left crying. Some had left with needles in their fingers. She was punished each time, given grueling chores like mucking the stables or washing dishes, and Marinette would grump and groan about it the entire time.

The truth, however, was that she actually _enjoyed_ the hard labor. Feeling active, and _useful_ , building muscle in her little frame…Marinette cherished everything about being out in the fields or in the kitchens.

(Sometimes her parents would even make a comment, like they knew her secret. But both Marinette and her parents tended to ignore this little fact.)

With another twirl, Marinette _really_ looked at herself in the mirror. The pink silk dress she wore was fitted just right to her frame, like always, but this time, the cut of the dress itself was different. The waist was cinched in still, but there was no bow in the back, nothing to draw the eyes away from the curve that was starting to form there. The sleeves were slim, fitted right down to her fingertips. Skirts overlayed with some type of chiffon billowed out a little more fully than they would have just yesterday. Worst out of everything, though, wasn't the additional fabric at the bottom of her dress; it was the complete _lack_ of fabric at the top.

Suddenly Marinette felt like she would trade all the handmade dresses just to be able to wear a stiff collar one more time.

Another exasperated puff of air came out of Marinette and she turned one way and then the other, checking herself over from all angles. Just as she placing her open palms over her now-exposed chest (she was still modest, for goodness' sake…it was just _less_ ) when the door burst open, and Marinette, at war temporarily with flinging herself backward and attacking, promptly fell off her pedestal.

"Hi!" a cheery voice said from the doorway. "I'm Alya! I'm your new lady's maid!"

* * *

Marinette had given up every fight she had ever put toward her parents (or, rather, her nursery maids) about the personal uselessness of a lady's maid the night Alya had come into her life. For, as much as Marinette still didn't need someone to help her dress, she hadn't realized how much she needed a _friend_. Alya was her closest companion in many ways, but only a small portion of that was due to professional expectations. It wasn't to say the caramel-color skinned girl didn't know what her responsibilities were or ever slack on them in the least. It was the way she would level the princess with a look when Marinette suggested something she knew she couldn't do, or laughed with her when she tripped just to be there to pick her up, or how she talked to her like a real human being. Really, the only downfall to having Alya as her lady's maid was when she had to leave her while at sea.

Not that Alya complained _too_ much. Not since Nino arrived a year later.

Nino was the nephew of the head chef and had come to apprentice at the castle. With him, he brought an assortment of handmade instruments – some based off instruments from France, where he hailed, some completely of his own invention. One of Marinette's favorites was a type of flute made from a thick reed. It was held in front instead of the side, and was small and thin, which made it easy to conceal in a shirt sleeve. It became a something of a staple with seeing Marinette; when the princess was there, there was sure to be a song at some point. After Nino taught her the basics, Marinette had quickly surpassed him, and the flute – nicknamed Buginette for Lady Luck herself – became a pleasure to those who shared her company, especially her fellow shipmates on long voyages in later years.

(Marinette was not blind to Alya's clear preference of the classical guitar that Nino would gladly play and sing along with when it was brought out or suggested. Nor did Marinette miss Nino's clear preference to switch to love songs whenever Alya was around.)

When Chloé came, Marinete's life changed overnight.

Literally.

It was a quiet night, and Marinette had been all too happy to ditch Alya to a hopeful-looking Nino and take a walk on the beach in solitude. She relishes the feel of the sand in her toes, the cold waves coming to brush across her ankles high enough to dampen the edges of her dress. The view from the beach, lit from high above her through the palace windows, was breathtaking, the clear, moonless and cloudless night making the water seem like it was sparkling with magic in the dark. She brought her flute up to her lips, but as the first note cut through the stillness, everything went dark.

When Marinette woke, it was still dark, but her world rocked back and forth, pitching gently across…were those waves? Shaking her head – and regretting it immediately as the pain hit – Marinette made to stand. At the next small pitch to the side, the princess was sent sprawling onto the deck she now realized she had been "sleeping" on.

The structure was a tiny skiff, barely big enough to warrant a trip a few miles around the coast. A stiff-looking girl, long golden hair catching the little light like fireflies, was working the rigging in a way that made Marinette flinch in its awkwardness. Marinette rose, steadying herself with a hand on her head. She started to stomp the short distance to the girl, realizing that she must have been the one to _kidnap_ her, when she stopped midstep.

She was wearing _pants_.

Marinette now was not only _furious_ , she was insanely _jealous_. Why had she never thought of that!?

The following conversation (confrontation, more like) revealed Chloé's story of her wealthy merchant father's ship being taken by pirates. Not only was her father, who she loved dearly, on board, but an entire colony's worth of people and materials. They were holding them all hostage, hoping for more booty than they had already spoiled, holding out for a ransom from their mother country of France. Meanwhile, a blockade had formed by the flagship of the Pirates, their companion ship, and now the vessel the unmoored colonists were trapped on. In the Caribbean. Every day the situation got worse, and the people were suffering. There was only one thing that could be done: a miraculous rescue from Ladybug, or the luck Ladybug carried around with her seemingly by presence alone.

"What do you think kidnapping _me_ will do for you, idiot girl?" Marinette yelled, ripping a scrap of fabric off the bottom of her dress to tie around her dampening hair. "You had best left me at home and searched the seedy pits for this 'Ladybug' of yours! Unless you plan to try to use me as a bartering chip for her assistance, which I would hope you would have a better sense than that. Even if she _does_ exist – "

"The sailors said she was the one 'whose tiny frame belied her strength'," Chloé started, standing with resolve as she stared Princess Marinette in the eye, "who had 'bested 50 men at the age of 10', and who flitted from oppressor to oppressor with a hum on her lips as she leveled each one, like a _ladybug_ , swinging from the rigging of the tallest mast, the embodiment of Lady Luck _herself_ … Shall I continue?"

"No, I… That won't be necessary."

No, Marinette didn't need to hear any more. She, like Chloé seemed to have discovered the identity of this "Ladybug" through these descriptions alone. Marinette sat, thinking, letting everything sink in. She was startled to see her own hands were shaking slightly, but…it wasn't from fear. There was anticipation bubbling under her skin.

 _How many ships had she said? Three now? A flagship, a –_

"Is it true?" Chloé said quietly, and Marinette looked to her companion almost in surprise that she was there. The blond girl had tears at the edges of her eyes, and Marinette, really looking at her now, could fully appreciate the desperation of Chloé's journey. In the small lantern hanging by the mast, Marinette could see double black eyes on what she thought had been fair skin. A badly-healing slash went from her right ear to her chin, cutting a groove through her lip that was, in turn, already nursing a bruise on the other side. Her golden hair looked as though it had been burned on one side – along with her shirt, that Marinette was just now realizing was the upper half of a dress, making the pants she wore a necessity for proprietorial modesty rather than a smart fashion choice. She wore no shoes, and had nothing of supplies with her but a few bottles of questionable rum and some molding bread and oranges.

It was in this moment, Marinette sizing up her unwanted shipmate who, though bruised and broken still held herself with grace and _hope_ , when the princess changed her mind.

"It was _47_ men, but that doesn't have as nice a ring to it as '50', does it?"

* * *

[[ Marinette can kick butt like no one's business. 8) I have the next…20 chapters written out?

AND THIS TIME THAT IS NOT A TYPO. X)

These…will not be edited. It's speed-write time. ;D

THANK YOU FOR READING! xoxo ]]


	4. Virtuoso

[[ ...Oh, did you think Marinette was kidding? ]]

* * *

Mermay Day Four – Prompt: **Virtuoso**

* * *

She was 11 when she conquered her first ship.

The question of _how_ a miniscule girl of the uppers of upper-crust society was able to trap 47 pirates below deck _and keep them there_ was a question that would forever be unanswered. The fact that, after the initial capture, and during the subsequent battle to keep them all there, the little princess was able to sew her own flag – from the fabric of _their_ shirts – and _then_ single-handedly sail herself to the nearest port to present 47 shirtless men to the kingdom for trial was, in essence, nothing short of miraculous.

"I'm just lucky, I guess!" was the girl's only response on the subject.

The captured pirates were mum on the subject. Whether this was from sheer embarrassment or from not truly knowing themselves, the people could only guess. And guess they did. The story wasn't a simple thing; the ship, a vessel of infamous history, had been long harassing people along the coastal European cities for _years_ , building a notorious reputation that was not unfounded in dirty deeds. _Princesa_ Marinette had been sailing with her parents to England when their vessel was overtaken, the sight already famous child causing an excitement akin to that of Pizaro's treasure to the seafaring thugs. Once she was on board with them, they wasted no time in sailing out of sight.

It was the last heist they would ever do. And though the pirates as a whole wouldn't speak of what she had done, the name " _Peque_ _ña Dama Suerte_ ", "Little Lady Luck" became, from that time onward, the name associated with the Spanish princess.

* * *

She was 12 when she bested her mother, Queen Sabine, a renowned fighter in her own right, at fencing; 13 when she won against her father, the King, who was famous throughout Europe for his swordsmanship.

The girl was as small as she was strong…and _smart_. Her hands could barely grapple a longsword, but it didn't stop her from becoming adept enough with an epée to best any opponent who challenged her. They all entered laughing. They all left astounded. The general descriptions of their battles were "quick". They would tell of the way she seemed to flit around like a bug, even humming in the interims between rounds as if to round out the picture of an innocent creature who would sting at the first sign of trouble.

And sting she would.

* * *

She was 13 when she took her second ship, though it was the first one she had set out purposefully to capture.

The tales of a girl with the power of the sea and the gift of the sky became songs on the lips of sailors and lullabies to the babes of mariners. The girl they described had no knowledge that she had been painted as both a siren and an angel, an ethereal being without a name except "Ladybug". In the space of only two years, the rumors had grown into whispered myths. They transformed into stories told alongside Poseidon and Ceto, mermaids and Atlantis. Something magical to hope for…or a destructive entity to fear.

Until the ship that held Governor Bourgeois and the French colony heading to the Caribbean was recovered, Ladybug had lived in song and story. Now, though, the ethereal shown itself in corporal form; she fought like a dragon, the twin ships of the famed buccaneers downed within the hour she arrived. The ships were sunk to the bottom of the sea, along with any of the crew that had been foolish enough to stay aboard a ship set on fire. _Le Grand_ , Bourgeois's ship, found itself suddenly armed, the colonists' weapons returned and then some. The resulting battle was short-lived; the captain was killed by the girl hero herself when he refused surrender, and the colonists found themselves neck deep in renewed heart and hope as they retook their own ship.

Marinette had sailed herself back home in Chloé's ship, explaining to her parents that she had been kidnapped and freed herself and sailed back at the earliest chance.

The only surprising part of this story was that someone would dare kidnap her in the first place.

And the fact that, somehow, she had acquired the reddest dog in existence while out on the sea.

Marinette, for her part, had to deal with being thirteen and not only experiencing the sights of war, but the repercussions of taking a man's life for the first time. It was this that persuaded the Princess of Spain to invite Governor Bourgeois and his daughter for a visit. And, when Chloé came, the only person privy to her secret, to beg her to stay.

* * *

She was 17 when she took her last voyage as Ladybug.

By now, the mask Chloé had made her on their first trip had become a staple – though the garment now had been redesigned from a torn red cloth with inked black dots into something Marinette approved of. It was leather, the side that touched her face covered with a ship-worthy canvas, the same material woven through the sides to a double tie she could fasten behind her for stability. She fingered the aged material, thinking of how the worn paint needed a touch up.

From her spot in the crow's nest, Marinette could see their last companion ship, _Lady Grace_ , turn toward the north on their voyage home. A canon fired, the force of it resonating in Marinette's soul a little deeper than it should have. She fought the tears that came to her eyes at the finality of it.

It had been a smart outfit. After building a crew – mostly by the means of Chloé's extensive connections and ballooning from there – Chloé and Marinette (under the guise of Ladybug), took a ship, named it _El Lugar de la Mariquita_ , _The Ladybug's Spots_ , and became "pirates" fighting pirates in their own right.

A second canon fire.

They were "lawless" in the sense that they answered to no one, though the local governments would always turn a blind eye when the crusaders of the sea were about their business of saving souls. They never killed if it could be helped, never gleaned anything from the spoils of their battles. Within three years they had amassed two more vessels to their number. Their flagship, Ladybug's original brigantine, was more than modest in size, a merchant-looking vessel. In other words: perfect bait. The innocence of the ship was like a fishing lure for seedy sea vermin. And by the time the unsuspecting ships would realize their mistake, it would be too late. Three blasts from a canon, and then Ladybug's symbol would appear. Within moments, their companion ships, _Reine_ _des Abeilles_ and _Lady's Grace_ , would come to either help, or, more likely, help clean up the pieces ( _Abeilles_ was built to pull ships, and _Grace_ was a renovated brig with an entire floor dedicated to prison holds). Pirates grew wary of lone ships on the sea, knowing that if they came close enough, the Ladybug's colors would suddenly be hoisted, and their villainous days would be over…one way or another.

The third canon fire sounded, and Marinette – _Ladybug_ – dissolved into the tears she had held back the entire voyage. She watched through misty eyes until _Lady's Grace_ 's dot disappeared forever into the darkness. This wasn't a goodbye to them; they would sail again, under the same spotted flag. The symbolic canon fire – _their_ symbol – was for Ladybug herself. For when her crew next set sail, Ladybug would not be joining them.

This was Ladybug's last adventure.

But, contrary to what Marinette believed, it wasn't over yet.

* * *

[[ There's only OONNNEEE MOOORRREEE INTRO CHAPTERRRRRR!

WHO'S READY FOR THESE TWO TO MEEET!?

(And again, these are NOT EDITED. At least, not much.

…on THAT note, if you see something terribly wrong (sometimes I write notes for myself to fix something when I'm editing…but…I'm not…so…help a girl out if you see something?)

THANKS FOR READING THIS!

*hurries to write up the next chapter so WE CAN GET TO THE NEXT CHAPTER.* :3 ]]


	5. Moon

[[ Warning: Depictions of death in this chapter. ]]

* * *

Mermay Day Five – Prompt: **Moon**

* * *

After Adrien discovered a set of handholds that ran the length of almost every ship – _somewhere_ – his trips into the open air exploded into life. His world was suddenly full of colorful seafarers, people speaking in a language he recognized, some speaking in languages that almost got him discovered for his gasping. Sometimes there was "music", where sailors would bring out tools that replicated sounds Adrien had only heard through singing. Sometimes there was dancing.

It was the first time Adrien had seen a "woman", which Plagg only described as the female version of a human. She was softer, but more playful, expressive. And when a man danced with her, she came _alive_.

Sometimes they told stories. On dark nights, seamen of all types – the mean ones with ugly scars and uglier language, a captain to his crew, a woman to a child – retold histories that Adrien wondered if any could possibly true. Occasionally stories of mermaids and sirens would surface, which always made him laugh inwardly at their varying descriptions, none of which ever came close. His favorite stories, though, were the ones of Ladybug. Unlike the others, these all seemed to revolved around the same events and same descriptions. Unlike a description of Neptune, which some say was a merman and some a blue human, to say the least, Ladybug was universally characterized in the same way: small, black haired, spotted, wickedly happy, undeniably deadly. Her stories varied only as much as the voice describing it; sailors would idolize her, pirates would curse her. She wore a mask of red with black spots, and, as the years went on, the stories came of the flag on her ship was colored the same way.

Adrien supposed that was must intrigue him the most about her was how her name and deeds were spoken of like a myth, but she herself seemed to be anything but a mere sailor's tale.

Not all trips to the surface were pleasant, though.

The first time he broke the surface to rolling waves and a sky that was black instead of blue, Adrien learned first-hand what had to have been the cause for the shipwrecks under the sea. The air swirled with agitation, waves pitching and crashing in haphazard directions, growing to frightening sizes. In a flash of light that illuminate his home in a way that made him fear it for the first time, the sight of a ship on one of the mountainous waves met his eyes.

It wouldn't make it.

It was tipping over.

Another flash of light confirmed Adrien's fears: there was nothing left on the surface.

Adrien hadn't visiting the wrecks for months after that. Not now…not anymore. Not after knowing what it took to bring the vessels and the treasures inside to the bottom of the sea.

 _Adrien swam as fast as he could against the pull of the currents. What he could do wasn't a question. That he needed to –_ had to _– do…_ something…

 _Their eyes were closed…they were floating…unmoving… And Plagg was trying to pull him away._

 _"What happened? Wh-Why are they so still, Plagg?"_

 _"A fish can't live out of water, Adrien. Humans can't live in it."_

A sharp tail slap to the face pulled Adrien out of his unwanted daydream.

They had arrived at the shipwreck sight. Adrien wasn't sure of the exact words Plagg had said to convince him of how this was a good idea. In the end, Adrien summed it up to his own physical need to see and feel the sunlight through the sea again – to know that it was still there, and that this hadn't all been a cruel dream – than Plagg's insistence that there would be nothing he would regret seeing. This place had once been a place of discovery, of hidden treasures. Now, though, it was only symbols of death and destruction, and ignorance toward them both.

"Look closer, Adrien."

He didn't want to, didn't want to see, to have more hellish memories to fall back on in the quiet dark…but Adrien did as he was instructed.

They were in a dark room, something flat and willowy, a built structure, in the corner. Nearby, attached to a wall, was a chest not yet decayed like many of the others. With a clawed hand, Adrien lifted the lid of the box carefully, appreciating for the first time that this had been important to somebody at some time. It was, like many of the others he had seen, full of different – mostly unrecognizable – objects, each with a purpose or a story to which Adrien would never been privy. He didn't want to see any more.

 _Look closer_ , Plagg had said.

Softly, Adrien closed the lid to the chest and began to drag his fingers across the walls of the room.

The "hurricane" had wiped out fathoms of homes to fish and shark and whale alike. Even the Merpeople, buried in the hidden depths below, had felt the effects of it. But here, amid the once eerie carnage and resulting desolation…

…life… _thrived._

Plagg had tried to explain… _this_ before, but Adrien hadn't known, hadn't really understood. An octopus tentacle reached out from the chest. Coral, anemones, and kelp seemed to transform the place, the off-put creatures who had lost their home now finding new refuge in something that had once been a symbol of death, of beauty lost. A school of brightly colored fish swam passed his face. Not that he was looking for it, there were nestles of eggs, colonies of sea horses…

The entire vessel had become a home to those who had none, scores of creatures who would have died themselves if not for this…blessing.

Adrien reached above him without really looking and grabbed onto the frame directly over his head. He hadn't understood, hadn't known how this great power of destruction was able, in its way, to support life. Adrien blinked his eyes, a warmth made of his own volition, a result stemming from dual emotions of sadness and hope.

A spongy texture touches his finger, and Adrien looks up without moving his hand to see a starfish nudging his clawed digit with a strange fervor. Something slid from one of the arms of the starfish onto his own finger, the starfish releasing him directly afterward. The merboy pulled his hand down to his face to examine the strange item. It was snug around his finger, but not in an uncomfortable way. Black and shiny, the surface seemed to be unmarred like the rest of the things that fell below the ocean. In the middle was a design of bright green; four ovals fanned around something like a disfigured circle. When his focus returned, Plagg was staring intently at him. It was the permission he didn't realize he needed to keep this treasure. For the first time in his life, Adrien thanked whoever it was who was the means of bringing this gift to him.

qpqpqpqpqp

The ring felt stiff and heavy on his finger as if hanging on by magic as Adrien raced through the tossing currents as fast as he had gone in his life.

After years of listening to stories, and hoping, _yearning_ , the flag that Adrien had dreamed of seeing was finally spotted at the edge of the horizon. His initial excitement propelled him forward without explanation to Plagg, the catfish not even bothering to follow his fast pace. When Adrien paused to surface once again, if just to gaze at the ship before the sun faded into darkness, the sight just beyond caused the blond-haired fish-boy's stomach to churn as much as the ocean would be soon.

It was a monster clawing toward Ladybug's ship. And from the looks of it, they had no idea it was coming.

qpqpqpqpqp

Marinette watches the moon peek through the clouds. At the creaking of the ladder rope behind her, she hastily swiped at the tears on her cheeks, pinching her nose to hide all evidence of tears there.

"Should've known you'd be up here."

Chloé pulled one leg over the edge of the crow's nest and then the other, coming to stand by her friend.

"It was my shift," Marinette replied easily.

Chloé scoffed. Marinette sighed heavily.

"I needed a break," she finally conceded, leaning to rest her forearms on the rough edge, fingers tracing the edges of her spotted mask.

"From your own party?" There was a smile in Chloé's voice that made Marinette's lips twitch upward as well.

"From _your_ party, of which my name is thrown around as freely as the rum."

"Rum?" Chloé huffed in fake indignance, arms crossing over her chest. "Please. That is the _finest_ diluted wine I could get my hands on."

"So…rum."

Marinette laughed at the affronted look on Chloé's face, and Chloé, in turn, smirked victoriously.

"So…" Chloé continued when the resulting quiet stretched on. "No better place than the crow's nest for Ladybug to think of her impending demise? Seriously, Marinette. Marriage isn't a death sentence."

Leave it to Chloé to get straight to the point.

"It is for Ladybug," Marinette mumbled sullenly. The reminder that Marinette's good deeds as Ladybug would suddenly stop, and how, in just a few years' time the ocean would be riddled again with filth was enough to send Marinette back to tears. The fear for the innocents she wouldn't be able to reach was nearly unbearable.

Conveniently, the fact that the Ladybug ships would be continuing their work slipped her mind.

Thinking of it like this also helped her avoid marinating in her own personal woes.

"Says who?" Chloé said accusingly.

"Says my future h-h-heaugh-!" Marinette literally gagged on the word, making Chloé roll her eyes. "Er, future _husband_."

"Since when have _you_ been dictated by _anyone_? And don't say the time I put you in the boat!" she added when Marinette opened her mouth, making the black-haired girl scowl at her companion. "We both know you could have gotten out of that easily. And I can't see any of this changing by adding a husband."

"But I'll be hopelessly in _love_ , Chlo!"

Chloé blanched, her expression diving into one of complete surprise. But Marinette didn't seem to notice; her sky-blue eyes went soft and starry-eyed to a point that made Chloé almost slap her to wipe the look off her face.

"I won't _want_ to leave him!" Marinette continued, missing the horrified look on Chloé's face. "I'll want to be by him all the time, him and his heart of gold… Or maybe he won't love me at all! And then I'll live in a world of sadness and despair and pining for what could have been and stuck in a place I'll never escape and I'll never want to get on a boat again simply from being too depressed! And then, in just a few more years, I'll be _queen_ , and my entire future will be laid out before me. Oh my gosh! I don't know how to run a kingdom!"

This time Chloé did slap Marinette soundly across the face.

Marinette looked shocked for a moment, then crumbled in on herself, groaning loudly. Her next words came out muffled by her arms.

"Are you _sure_ you don't want to be the princess instead?"

"I thought we both agreed how much of a disaster that would be."

"I don't care. I abdicate."

" _Ugh!_ " Chloé grabbed Marinette and hoisted her up to stand and look at her. "Marinette, quit being a basket case about this and use your Ladybug brain and think of a solution!"

"I did! I abdicated! Throne is all yours, and no take-backsies!"

"Oh my _gosh_ – "

"On threat of death!" Marinette mimicked taking out her sword before dropping into a classic swordplay pose, one hand behind her head and a closed fist held taut at Chloé's navel.

Chloé looked at her, quite unamused.

The two girls stared at each other for a moment before Marinette, without losing eye contact, started poking her fist repeatedly into Chloé's belly. With each touch, Marinette would cry out in pain in an idiotic way. After the fifth time, Chloé smacked her hand away.

"My sword!" Marinette yelped, then leapt off the edge of the crow's nest as if to go after her "fallen" weapon.

Chloé's shocked face appeared immediately over the edge, eyes dancing wildly as she searched for a moment…before catching Marinette's eye. She smacked the wood rim of the nest and grunted angrily.

"I hate you," Chloé's voice drifted from inside the crow's nest.

"I know," Marinette laughed in reply, hanging comfortably from the rigging just below the lookout spot.

A sudden shout sounded from below from an unfamiliar voice, the same word repeated over and over. After a moment, there were frantic shouts and a stampede of moment on deck. Marinette shot Chloé a _look_.

"Gall, Chloé. How much rum have they had?"

"Not enough…" Chloé said breathlessly. Her tone surprised her companion. Marinette looked up to see her ashen-faced, looking out at sea with wide, fearful eyes.

A shiver of dread ran through Marinette. They were alone out here, and while they could handle themselves alone well enough, they weren't exactly prepared to do…so…

Marinette, who had climbed back into the nest to see what Chloé was still gazing at, felt her breath catch in her throat. The sight of the moon disappeared into the thickness of the clouds. Suddenly the word shouted from below formed eerily – though belatedly – into her mind.

" _HURRICANE!_ "

* * *

[[ Welp!

I don't think they were quite prepared for this…

Are _you_!? ]]

[[ *waggles eyebrows* ]]

[[ Okay, so, I need to add a warning that there IS, uh, nudity in…oh. It's not for another 6 chapters. But yeah. It's what you'd expect, especially if you've seen 'The Little Mermaid.'

Unlike the movie, though, _our_ heroes get to met and talk IN THE NEXT CHAPTER. IT'S FINALLY HERE. :3 ]]

[[ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THAT MOVIE, YOU SHOULD! ]]


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